YORK MYSTERY PLAY INTERVIEWS

1969

Visitor Tabs

Description

This Calendar News item reports on the 1969 production of the York Mystery Plays. It features interviews with the three actors portraying Jesus (Peter Blanshard, John White, and Gerald Lomas) as well as the producer Edward Taylor.

In the backdrop of St. Mary’s Abbey in the York Museum Gardens, rehearsal is taking place. The first Jesus, Gerald Lomas of Pudsey, is being forced to pick up and carry the cross. The cross is then taken off him by the Roman soldiers. The second actor playing Jesus, Peter Blanshard of Upper Poppleton, is nailed to the cross. This rehearsal footage is intercut with close-ups of sorrowful Mary Magdalene. The reporter then speaks to the third actor playing Jesus, John White, about the role. He explains how he and the other actors share the role of Jesus as well as take in turns playing Judas and God in each performance. The other actors join him and discuss the difficulty of the role, emotionally and physically, sighting “crucifixion shoulder” as a result of carrying even a hollowed out cross. Next, the producer Edward Taylor speaks about the costume designs and the challenges of working on an amateur production of the Mystery Plays with actors from all over Yorkshire. The item ends with a brief shot of Blanshard hanging on the cross.